TV Review: The Stand (2020)

The Stand (2020) adapted by Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell from the novel by Stephen King

With its release just before the Covid lockdowns happened, a new television adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Stand might seem either inappropriate or well-timed to strike a nerve. Either way, the series follows the story of a human-crafted virus that wipes out over 99% of the population. The survivors in the United States are drawn in dreams to one of two locations. Some people dream of Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) who invites them to Boulder, Colorado. Others dream of Randal Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard) who is drawing people to Sin City, i.e. Las Vegas. Some people dream of both figures, creating a personal conflict between good and evil that mirrors the larger conflict of the good and evil groups. The show follows several characters as they struggle with what they should do in their trying times.

Adapting such a large book requires a lot of trimming or creative editing to fit it even into this eight-and-a-half hour miniseries. The results are very uneven. The pacing flips around a lot. The first episodes are a little slow and make the mistake of intercutting events in Boulder with events weeks earlier as the characters are heading to Boulder. Any threat on the road is obviously not going to cause a tragedy. Flagg is more of a minor boogey man in these episodes. He recruits one person while ten or so people follow the call of Mother Abigail. Then the story speeds up, so much that it feels that bits are missing or were cut out. The main story ends with a whole extra episode to go. The coda moves slowly while providing some "ever after" information that emphasizes how the story isn't over (even though it is over!). The storytellers could have made the same points in a third or a quarter of the time. I'm still not sure that the final episode was necessary.

The acting is fairly average. Skarsgard gives a much lower-keyed performance than expected for his flamboyant and over-the-top character. He did fairly well. With the huge cast, a lot of characters get a lot less attention. Flagg's underlings underperform, but I would blame the script for giving them little more to do than reacting to Flagg. The main heroes give good performances. Harold (Owen Teague) has a well-executed and acted story arc as he is tempted into doing the wrong thing. He walks the tough edge of being unlikeable and sympathetic. Franny (Odessa Young) also does a good job though she doesn't really shine until the coda.

Even aside from the gross plague that creates a lot of unpleasant illness and corpses, the show leans into the overall gore and the depravity in the background of the Las Vegas scenes. Viewers need a very high tolerance. This show was a bit beyond my comfort zone.

Barely recommended--While interesting in parts, it's really better to read the book.

Book Review: The Shining by Stephen King

The Shining by Stephen King

Jack Torrence has almost no good luck. A lot of things have gone wrong in his life, though most of his problems come from his own behavior. He was a promising author and taught English at a New England prep school. Unfortunately, he developed a drinking problem, which does not mix well with his occasional out-of-control temper. He's been fired and has wound up working as the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. The Overlook is a luxury hotel up in the Rocky Mountains that's open from late spring to early fall. Jack has a chance to finish a play he is working on as well as reconnecting with his family during the isolated winter months.

Jack takes his faithful but wary wife Wendy and his son Danny. Danny has some psychic powers called "shining." He can see other people's thoughts and emotions; he has visions of possible futures; he feels the psychic presence of past objects and people; he can communicate with others who also have the shining. The parents don't know all of this, but they know that he is different. Sometimes Danny knows things that he couldn't possibly known. He's five going on six, so even he doesn't understand his powers. As the Overlook staff leaves, the African-American cook Hallorann takes the boy aside. Hallorann has the shining and recognizes Danny's very powerful shining ability. Hallorann warns Danny to stay away from certain parts of the hotel. And if Danny is in trouble, he should use the shining to call Hallorann back.

The hotel has a very checkered past, with lots of violent and tragic deaths. It's unclear whether the souls are trapped there or stay willingly or they are just manifestations of some malevolent entity embodied in the hotel. Weird events start happening, not just to Danny. Jack's delicate psychological state is exploited and abused by the hotel, as if it wants Jack and his family to become the next part of the checkered past. Danny and Jack start seeing, hearing, and feeling things as they spend more time at the Overlook. Bad things happen.

The book gives a fascinating portrayal of a slow descent into madness and horror. Jack's done a lot of bad things but he's also tried to reform his life. His father was an alcoholic and was abusive to his family, and probably his grandfather before that. The theme of being trapped in an unending cycle of misery is played out through him and the hotel. Wendy has a troubled relationship with her mother and deals with feelings of inadequacy as a wife and mother. She has her descent and tries to break out of her cycle too. A heartbreaking scene at the end has an insane Jack chasing Wendy slowly up a staircase, both very wounded physically and emotionally. Wendy is trying to escape the horror (by this point, she's hearing and seeing things too) while Jack is trying to drag her back down. The story is terrifying and heartbreaking, and also hard to put down because it is written so well.

I haven't read much Stephen King, only The Stand (which I read back in the 1980s) and On Writing (which I read a couple of years ago). Movies have filled in a lot of the gaps, but I should probably read some more. This book is so much better than the highly flawed Kubrick movie.

Highly recommended, though the brutal violence and language may be tough going for some readers.

The good folks at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast discussed this book on Episode 243. Go and listen.

Movie Review: It (2017)

It (2017) directed by Andy Muschietti

The town of Derry, Maine, is plagued by the disappearances of children in 1988. We see one of the abductions at the very beginning of the movie. Georgie Denbrough gets pulled down a storm drain by a malevolent clown hiding in the sewer. Georgie's middle-school brother Bill is obsessed with finding his brother, which doesn't help his already outsider status in the cliquish community. He runs afoul of school bully Henry, but a bunch of other boys and one girl are also on the outs with the bully and the school population in general. They band together to spend their summer trying to solve the mystery of what's happening to the kids. And avoid the bully. Since the story is based on a Stephen King novel, things are bound to get more horrible before they get any better.

The malevolent force (the "It" of the title) comes to town every 27 years, as is discovered by the library nerd in the group. The history isn't very detailed but has enough clues to point to the terror and where it might be located. The friends have to muster the nerve to confront It, hoping to bring back Georgie and the other missing kids.

The cast of young actors are uniformly great in their roles. Their characters are mostly well developed (one or two of them get little screen time) and are believable as early teens. They use foul language a lot more than is believable but that's a fault of the script, not the performers. The handful of adults in the movie are good enough; Bill Skarsgaard as Pennywise the Clown (the main manifestation of "It") is very good.

As compared to the television miniseries, this film comes out well. The miniseries blends a modern day story with the "27 years earlier" story, depriving the early story of drama since viewers know all the kids survive to fight another day. The film only tells the earlier story and the end credits hint at a "chapter two" movie. Since the movie did phenomenally well at the box office, a sequel is certain. The special effects in the movie are naturally better than a twenty-year old TV miniseries. The scares are a little bit better in the movie. The movie looks even better by comparison.

I might make the effort to see "chapter two" in the theaters when it comes out. Recommended for horror fans, especially of the Stephen King variety.

TV Review: Stephen King's It (1990)

Stephen King's It (1990) teleplay by Lawrence D. Cohen and Tommy Lee Wallace, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

Seven childhood friends in the New England town of Derry reunite in 1990 to fight the same evil force that they fought in 1960. The town has a curse--every thirty years something terrible happens. In 1960, it was a wave of disappearances and deaths of young children. A mysterious entity that most often manifests itself as a clown called Pennywise (played with effective relish by Tim Curry) lures children to their deaths. Since the seven friends banded together, they avoided death and had the courage to face the malevolent force, seemingly defeating it. But a new series of deaths and disappearances has started. Mike, the one friend who stayed behind in Derry, sees the pattern and calls his friends back for another fight with fear and evil. As adults, will they have the enough courage and belief to fight the good fight and win?

The movie is a two-part adaptation of the book, giving it plenty of time (just over three hours) to develop characters and have plenty of scares. The actors are good, with Tim Curry's performance as the stand-out, even though he is unrecognizable. The seven friends aren't only menaced by the evil force; they also face up against high school bullies who don't fare well against Pennywise in the ultimate confrontation back in 1960. The big finale in 1990 is a little less convincing since the special effects look dated. Even so the story has a satisfying ending and is well worth the three hours.

Recommended.

Movie Review: The Mist (2007)

The Mist (2007) written and directed by Frank Darabont based on a novella by Stephen King

A strange mist comes down from the hills and envelops a small New England town. Normally fog would be no big deal, but people who go out into this mist often die with frightening screams. One group is caught in the local supermarket. They would be okay (there's certainly enough food and supplies) except that the local religious nutter, Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), is stirring up trouble by making apocalyptic speeches and pronouncing God's will (i.e. the mist is a punishment for sin). Under normal circumstances, people ignore her as a kook, but kooky things are happening. She seems more credible than she ought to.

Our hero, David Drayton (Thomas Jane), also comes in conflict with his next door neighbor, a big city lawyer who comes up for weekends and is not so personable. They seem to be mending fences when David gives the lawyer a ride into town but things rapidly fall apart in the mist-covered grocery store. Since he's a lawyer, he takes a strictly rational approach to the situation, a nice contrast to Mrs. Carmody's take on the situation. An interesting thematic tension is introduced...and then dropped a third of the way through the film, leaving poor David (and we poor viewers) to deal with Carmody's Crazy Cult. And the creatures out in the mist.

Other interesting themes pop up but go mostly undeveloped. For example, David's eight year-old son is with him in the store. David wants to protect him but also deal with the situation. The son is quickly reduced to a minor plot device rather than an actual character. Town new-comer Amanda is a third-grade teacher who helps out with the boy and discusses the situation with the dad and his group of helpers. She is optimistic about human nature and doesn't think Carmody is going to get any traction. All the other guys in the discussion (and yes, everyone else is male in that discussion) say that people are bad and/or dumb and they need to make a plan to deal with her or escape, maybe both. Amanda is proven wrong and quickly steps in line with everyone else, leaving another interesting theme or contrast under-developed.

The monsters in the mist are interesting but again are undeveloped. There are different types of creatures, each with odd and unnatural powers and behaviors. No cohesive explanation for them is even attempted by the film--the powers seem randomly chosen to add jump scenes and more gore to the movie. Certainly a horror movie doesn't have to explain everything, but here it just seems like more undeveloped ideas thrown in.

What should have been a tight, claustrophobic horror film turns out to be a thematic mishmash that ends unsatisfactorily for both the characters in the film and the viewers of the film. It's a shame because the film has material for three or four good horror films. Making this into a mini-series would have been much better.

Book Review: On Writing by Stephen King

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Few authors are as prolific and successful as Stephen King. In 2000, he published this book, part autobiography and part writing advice. The memoir covers his early years, from childhood until he broke his addictions to booze and drugs. King does not give a thorough or strictly chronological biography but "snapshots" of moments influential in his writing. The details of his dirt poor childhood, his school life, and his marriage are interesting. Always his writing and struggles with publishing are present, giving unity to an otherwise non-linear narrative.

The second larger section of the book is devoted to the act of writing. He uses the metaphor of a toolbox to describe the various things a writer needs to be successful. He discusses the nuts and bolts like those found in Strunk and White's Elements of Style (basic grammar and style choices). He shows the importance of crafting good dialogue and building good characters. Plot is not his greatest concern in writing; he often lets the story flow naturally from the characters he's created and the interesting situations they struggle through. He's a great advocate of writing a first draft and then letting it sit for several weeks if not months. After a while, he comes back to the work fresh, probably with a better idea of the themes (which can suggest scenes or details to add) and with a better likelihood of cutting what doesn't work (after a couple of months the work is less your baby and more a work in progress that needs some trimming to make it better). King also discusses his workspace and work plan, showing how they contribute to his productivity as a writer.

The book is an easy, interesting read and very inspiring for writers. It is aimed at fiction writers, but even a blogger can find the advice and stories useful and motivational.